Woman Found Guilty Of Mutilating 3-Year-Old

A woman was found guilty in London of sending a 3-year-old British girl to Kenya for female genital mutilation, according to British authorities on Thursday, October 26.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, Amina Noor, 39, was found guilty by a jury of helping a Kenyan woman perform the surgery 17 years prior.

Prosecutors in the United Kingdom claimed that the conviction was the first for female genital mutilation offences committed overseas in England.

The case became public in 2018 when the girl, then a teenager, told a teacher that she had had the cutting procedure as a young child—which involves the partial or complete removal of external female genitalia.

After conducting an investigation, the London Metropolitan Police discovered that Noor, a British citizen of Somalian descent, had travelled to Kenya in 2006 with the girl and taken her to a private residence where the procedure was carried out.

Noor told police she assumed the child would simply receive an injection and that the child would not show any signs of pain afterwards. Prosecutors claimed Noor had encouraged and helped with the offence, but medical professionals who examined the girl discovered she had had her clitoris removed.

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Senior UK prosecutor Patricia Strobino emphasized that British authorities would work to prosecute female genital mutilation practices regardless of how long ago or where they occurred. She acknowledged that it was frequently difficult to find such cases because they happen in secret and victims are afraid to come forward for fear of being shunned by their communities.

“We want to send a strong message that this crime does not have to be carried out in the U.K. for perpetrators to be prosecuted,” Strobino said in a statement. “We will seek justice for victims regardless of where in the world it is committed, and offenders should be clear there is no hiding place.”

Although it is still commonly performed in some parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, the United Nations hopes to end female genital mutilation by 2030.

The practice can result in excessive bleeding, even death in certain cases, as well as pain during intercourse and complications during childbirth. According to UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children and youth, at least 200 million women and girls in 31 countries are estimated to be affected by the practice’s aftermath.

Noor will be given a sentence in December, with a maximum of 14 years in prison.

The sole other successful prosecution in the United Kingdom to date occurred in 2019 when an east London-based Ugandan woman was sentenced to 11 years in prison for carrying out the procedure on a young girl.